Abstract

In a generic model of excitable media, we simulate wave emission from a heterogeneity (WEH) induced by an electric field. Based on the WEH effect, a rotating electric field is proposed to terminate existed spatiotemporal turbulence. Compared with the effects resulted by a periodic pulsed electric field, the rotating electric field displays several improvements, such as lower required intensity, emitting waves on smaller obstacles, and shorter suppression time. Furthermore, due to rotation of the electric field, it can automatically source waves from the boundary of an obstacle with small curvature.

Received 19 March 2013Accepted 12 September 2013Published online 24 September 2013

Lead Paragraph: Emitting waves from existed heterogeneities (WEHs) by electric pulses has been attracting much attention and caused recent special concern. Heterogeneities in excitable media may lead to the formation of turbulence on certain conditions. Thus, the appearance of heterogeneities is harmful since it results in irregular patterns. However, WEH effect can make use of these existed heterogeneities as a powerful tool to control turbulence. Up to now, studies on WEH effect widely utilize a periodic pulsed electric field (PEF). In this paper, we simulate the WEH effects in terms of a rotating electric field possessing rotation symmetry. Compared with a PEF, the rotating electric field displays improvements in efficiency, such as lower required intensity, exciting waves on smaller obstacle, and shorter suppression time. Furthermore, due to rotation of the electric field, it can automatically source waves from the obstacle boundary with small curvature. This method will benefit the control of spatiotemporal patterns in inhomogeneous excitable media.

Acknowledgments:

We are grateful to Ning-Jie Wu for valuable discussions. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11005026 and 11274271), the Program for Qianjiang Talents in Zhejiang Province (No. 2012R10057), and the Start-Up Fund for Returned Oversea Chinese Scholars (No. 20121707).